‘India’s much-hyped tiger recovery needs a total reboot and official monopoly over tiger research should end’

Source: The post is based on the article “‘India’s much-hyped tiger recovery needs a total reboot and official monopoly over tiger research should end’” published in The Times of India on 4th February 2023.

Syllabus: GS 3 – Environment and Bio-diversity Conservation.

Relevance: About issues of tiger conservation.

News: According to a world-renowned conservation scientist, India has about 3,000 tigers, but with focused efforts based on the science of the tiger-prey relationship, India has the potential to hold 10,000-15,000 tigers in the wild.

Why man-animal conflict is a central problem in tiger conservation?

Man-animal conflict is a national problem. This is because a) competition for space is high among tigers, leading to intraspecific aggression. This causes evicted tigers to come into conflict with humans, b) India has 3. 8 lakh sq km of suitable forests but the viable breeding tiger population is concentrated only in about 50,000 sq km area.

How to address man-animal conflict to enhance tiger conservation?

State chief wildlife wardens have enormous powers under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. They need to take some hard decisions such as Tigers that predate and have lost the fear of humans should be immediately killed. This will mitigate the conflict by at least 70%.

This is because capturing tigers is not a solution as there are no places with abundant wild prey for tigers.

The role of forest bureaucracy should be only to protect tigers from people and people from tigers.

What are the other steps that have to be done for tiger conservation?

a) The government should take steps to increase prey density to more natural levels, b) National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) should remove restrictions on the tranquilising or killing of dangerous problem tigers, c) Adherence to habitat management principles should be based on solid science and not whims and fancies, d) Official monopoly over tiger research, monitoring, nature education, tourism, filmmaking, and even village relocation should end.

NTCA and India’s much-hyped tiger recovery need a total reboot. For that, a new wildlife task force with experienced officials, scientists, and enlightened political leaders needs to be set up to ensure a radical overhaul of tiger conservation.